NEW YORK––Mayor de Blasio announced this week the Mayor’s Zero Waste Challenge, through which 31 businesses across all five boroughs are dramatically reducing waste. The Zero Waste Challenge is part of the administration’s comprehensive OneNYC plan to send Zero Waste to landfill by 2030. Participants include some of New York City’s most iconic businesses from a variety of sectors, such as ABC/Disney, Barclays Center, Citi Field, Le Bernardin, Whole Foods and many more.

“Our Zero Waste Challenge participants are leaders in their industries – and now they’re also leaders in sustainability,” said Mayor de Blasio. “In OneNYC, we made a major commitment to sending Zero Waste to landfill by 2030. We’re doing what we can to make recycling and composting as accessible as possible to New Yorkers, but everyone will need to do their part to make a more sustainable New York City a reality. These businesses are leading the way.”

Since the Challenge started earlier this year, participants have already diverted nearly 13,000 tons of waste from landfill and incineration (including composting over 4,000 tons), through tactics such as modifying purchase practices, reducing packaging, and switching to reusable materials or digital storage. For example, some participants have stocked their offices with reusable coffee mugs or glasses in lieu of disposable cups and bottled water; another did away with filing cabinets and moved to a digital storage system.